Though it contains one of the Ramones' biggest radio hits, "Pet Sematary" (written for Stephen King's movie of the same name), 1989's Brain Drain finds the "bruthas" from Queens at an all-time inspirational low. And since the aforementioned track is actually reviled by most of the band's hardcore fans, the listener has to make do with opener "I Believe in Miracles" and closer "Merry Christmas (I Don't Want to Fight Tonight)," which bookend the amazingly dull tracks in between with the record's only bright moments. The final Ramones album recorded for Sire Records (their label from day one), Brain Drain was sadly also the last to feature bassist and creative leader Dee Dee Ramone.

Sunday, January 30, 2011

The Ramones' long kiss goodnight was the longest in rock & roll history, beating out the Who's march into history books by spreading it out over the course of over two years. The double-disc We're Outta Here! captures what the band swears was its last concert ever at the Palace in Hollywood and while the group was in good form, the end result is no better or no worse than the average Ramones live album. Sure, there are some guest spots -- Dee Dee Ramone drops by, as does Eddie Vedder, Lemmy from Motorhead, Chris Cornell & Ben Shepard of Soundgarden and Tim Armstrong and Lars Frederikson from Rancid -- but the sound remains the same, which is a mixed blessing. Sure, it reminds you why the Ramones were great, but it also reminds you why only diehard fans followed them through the last 10 years of their existence. And if you're one of those diehard fans -- i.e., someone who can sing along with "Someone Put Something In My Drink" and "Any Way You Want It" -- this is for you.

Having made tentative inroads toward a wider American audience with Forever Now, the Psychedelic Furs' profile-raising and partial transformation continued with Mirror Moves. Very much a product of its mid-'80s time -- Keith Forsey produced, his drum machine providing the beats while synths played an even more prominent role than before -- it may not be the classic sound of the band but it is an often rewarding and inspiring listen. It didn't hurt that some of the band's best songs made an appearance here, either. Both "The Ghost in You" and "Heaven" balanced off a warm sound that managed to be radio-friendly on the one hand -- John Ashton's guitar mixed in surprisingly well with the fine if often conventional keyboard arrangements -- and surprisingly barbed on the other. Richard Butler's lyrics were some of his slyest and sharpest, a tone maintained throughout the album, while his one of a kind speak/sing clipped rasp kept things from being too lost even at the album's least inspired. Unlike the following Midnight to Midnight album, however -- where everything the Furs had going for them turned into a screeching halt -- Mirror Moves holds up fairly consistently. "Here Come Cowboys," with its combination guitar/string chug (or so it sounds!) and a brilliant slow descending chorus, and the driving, nervous piano and massed vocals on "Alice's House" are two particular winners. The secret highlight of the album is also its closer -- "Highwire Days," as brilliant a meditation on '80s-era political paranoia and fears as was done at the time. Butler's imagery is to the point without moralizing or dumbing down, while the tense arrangement suggests a more synth-based equivalent to the Chameleons, at once scaled for epic heights and almost uncomfortably close.

Pearl Jam took to superstardom like deer in headlights. Unsure of how to maintain their rigorous standards of integrity in the face of massive commercial success, the band took refuge in willful obscurity -- the title of their second album, Vs., did not appear anywhere in the packaging, and they refused to release any singles or videos. (Ironically, many fans then paid steep prices for import CD singles, a situation the band eventually rectified.) The eccentricities underline Pearl Jam's almost paranoid aversion to charges of hypocrisy or egotism -- but it also made sense to use the spotlight for progress. You could see that reasoning in their ensuing battle with Ticketmaster, and you could hear it in the record itself. Vs. is often Eddie Vedder at his most strident, both lyrically and vocally. It's less oblique than Ten in its topicality, and sometimes downright dogmatic; having the world's ear renders Vedder unable to resist a few simplistic potshots at favorite white-liberal targets. Yet a little self-righteousness is an acceptable price to pay for the passionate immediacy that permeates Vs. It's a much rawer, looser record than Ten, feeling like a live performance; Vedder practically screams himself hoarse on a few songs. The band consciously strives for spontaneity, admirably pushing itself into new territory -- some numbers are decidedly punky, and there are also a couple of acoustic-driven ballads, which are well suited to Vedder's sonorous low register. Sometimes, that spontaneity comes at the expense of Ten's marvelous craft -- a few songs here are just plain underdeveloped, with supporting frameworks that don't feel very sturdy. But, of everything that does work, the rockers are often frightening in their intensity, and the more reflective songs are mesmerizing. Vs. may not reach the majestic heights of Ten, but at least half the record stands with Pearl Jam's best work.

Recorded : March 27 – April 26, 1991 at London Bridge Studios, Seattle, Washington

Genre : Grunge

Length : 53:24

Label : Epic

Producer : Rick Parashar, Pearl Jam

Nirvana's Nevermind may have been the album that broke grunge and alternative rock into the mainstream, but there's no underestimating the role that Pearl Jam's Ten played in keeping them there. Nirvana's appeal may have been huge, but it wasn't universal; rock radio still viewed them as too raw and punky, and some hard rock fans dismissed them as weird misfits. In retrospect, it's easy to see why Pearl Jam clicked with a mass audience -- they weren't as metallic as Alice in Chains or Soundgarden, and of Seattle's Big Four, their sound owed the greatest debt to classic rock. With its intricately arranged guitar textures and expansive harmonic vocabulary, Ten especially recalled Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin. But those touchstones might not have been immediately apparent, since -- aside from Mike McCready's Clapton/Hendrix-style leads -- every trace of blues influence has been completely stripped from the band's sound. Though they rock hard, Pearl Jam is too anti-star to swagger, too self-aware to puncture the album's air of gravity. Pearl Jam tackles weighty topics -- abortion, homelessness, childhood traumas, gun violence, rigorous introspection -- with an earnest zeal unmatched since mid-'80s U2, whose anthemic sound they frequently strive for. Similarly, Eddie Vedder's impressionistic lyrics often make their greatest impact through the passionate commitment of his delivery rather than concrete meaning. His voice had a highly distinctive timbre that perfectly fit the album's warm, rich sound, and that's part of the key -- no matter how cathartic Ten's tersely titled songs got, they were never abrasive enough to affect the album's accessibility. Ten also benefited from a long gestation period, during which the band honed the material into this tightly focused form; the result is a flawlessly crafted hard rock masterpiece.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

The Greatest Hits, So Far mines the singles PiL released through 1990. Ten years after its release, it was doubtful that a second volume would surface (the '90s saw one lone studio release, not to mention a John Lydon "solo" record), so thankfully Lydon didn't embarrass himself by titling it "The Greatest Hits, Volume One." That said, not many outfits under the guise of one name can boast a collection of singles so diverse and ranging in quality. And really, the title should be "The Singles, So Far." By attempting to hit upon all the studio releases, bright moments like "Bad Baby," "Banging the Door," and "The Order of Death" get left behind. The distance between 1979's "Death Disco" and 1990's "Don't Ask Me" would be impossible to traverse with the trustiest of vehicles. The back cover of the disc depicts Stonehenge and an earthbound spacecraft, with a howling dog in the middle. That's accurate. With peers mutating from the Pop Group ("Careering") to Information Society ("Warrior"), PiL couldn't possibly expect to concoct a compilation that would appeal to all ears. In that regard, GHSF is more of a Denny's sampler than a thematic banquet spread. (To clarify: "Rules and Regulations" is a cheese stick, not tasty bean pâté.) Whether or not this is a proper first place to go for PiL is up for debate, as it takes a very eclectic head to thrill to both their early discordance and later chart-targeted tunefulness. It's not going to provide a solid idea of where they stood at any point in their existence, but it's just enough to pique further investigation.

Tracks

1.Public Image (from First Issue)

2.Death Disco (7" mix of the track from Metal Box)

3.Memories (from Metal Box)

4.Careering (from Metal Box)

5.Flowers Of Romance (from Flowers Of Romance)

6.This Is Not A Love Song (from This Is What You Want... This Is What You Get)

Like it or not, Public Image Limited's First Issue (aka Public Image) was an album that helped set the pace for what eventually became known as post-punk. In England a vacuum had opened up in the wake of the breakup of the Sex Pistols in January 1978, and many punk fans and rival groups were impatient to see what ex-Sex Pistols frontman John Lydon aka "Johnny Rotten" was going to roll out next. Disheartened owing to events in his legal proceedings against the Sex Pistols management company Glitterbest, and disgusted by the punk scene in general, Lydon was determined to create something that was neither punk nor even really rock as it was known in 1978. Working with ex-Clash guitarist Keith Levene, first-time bassist Jah Wobble, and Canadian drummer Jim Walker, Public Image Limited produced an album that represented the punk sound after it had shot itself in the head and became another entity entirely. Embracing elements of dub, progressive rock, noise, and atonality and driven by Lydon's lyrical egoism and predilection towards doom, death, and horror, First Issue was among a select few 1978 albums that had something lasting to say about the future of rock music. And not everyone in 1978 wanted to hear it; contemporary critical notices for First Issue were almost uniformly negative in the extreme.

Not all of the material on First Issue was necessarily forward-looking: "Attack" and "Low Life" could almost pass muster as latter-day Sex Pistols songs if it weren't for their substandard production values. These two numbers were recorded late in the project, and on the cheap, as the fledgling Public Image Limited had already been kicked out of practically every reputable studio in London. And there was a bracing song about Lydon's pet peeve, "Religion," presented in both spoken and sung incarnations. It is about as vicious and personal an anti-Catholic diatribe as exists on record, and in its day was considered a high holy turnoff by many listeners. But from there it gets better -- Public Image Limited's debut single, "Public Image," was also included on First Issue, and Keith Levene's guitar part, with its tasty suspensions and held-over-the-bar syncopation, was an important departure from standard punk guitar language absorbed so quickly by others (the Pretenders, U2, the Smiths) that listeners and musicians alike forgot the source of the sound. First Issue's opener, "Theme," was a force to be reckoned with, a grindingly slow dirge with wild, almost Hendrix-like figurations on the guitar and Wobble's floor-splitting foundation. This was punk with the power of Led Zeppelin, but none of the pretension. Lydon's anguished mantra in "Theme," "...and I just wanna die," was the exact reflection of what his generation was thinking about in the wake of the collapse of classic punk. "Annalisa" is the hardest-kicking rocker on the album, with nosebleed-strength guitar from Levene; it is so good that Nirvana in all practical purposes purloined the whole number, with minor alterations, as "Radio Friendly Unit Shifter" on In Utero.

But even with all of the calculated controversy seemingly built into the various cuts on First Issue, none attracted quite so much attention as "Fodderstompf." Faced with a serious shortage of material to fill out the album and with its release date looming, Public Image Limited decided to conclude the project with a track 12:55 in length, consisting of no more than a disco beat, chattering synthesizers, a bassline, and Jah Wobble singing, shouting, and screaming the phrase "we only wanted to be loved" in a joke voice. Rock critics savaged the song as a deliberate attempt to rip off the public, but it became hugely popular at the Studio 54 disco in New York; the drag queens and hipsters sang and screamed right along with Wobble out loud on the dancefloor -- nothing like that had ever happened at Studio 54. As it is perhaps the earliest extended dance mix that has little to do with disco or dub, it is apparent that "Fodderstompf" is an obvious precursor to the acid house and techno that began to evolve in the mid-'80s, although it is seldom accredited that distinction.

After it was released in December 8, 1978, First Issue peaked at number 22 on the British album charts, and import copies were snapped up in America practically as soon as they were loaded off the boat. But Warner Bros., the American label to which Public Image Limited were signed, was unhappy with the album, particularly in that the label felt the bass was mixed too loudly -- no one had ever recorded the bass so hot on a regular LP before. Public Image Limited protested, but Warner Bros. stood fast and the band ultimately relented; in the early weeks of January 1979 the whole of First Issue was re-recorded for the American market. But the only portion of this project ever to surface appeared on the backside of the U.K. 12" single of "Death Disco" in July 1979, a mix of "Fodderstompf" minus the vocals, retitled "Megga Mix." Warner Bros. never released the remade album, and the remainder of it has since disappeared. By early 1980 Trouser Press was joking that the American issue of First Issue was the "longest rush release in recorded music history," but clearly long before First Issue was a "dead" issue with Warner Bros. Right after the remake session concluded, drummer Jim Walker surprised Public Image Limited by departing with no notice to join the interesting but now forgotten English group the Pack. In came ex-101'ers drummer Richard Dudanski, and by their next album, Metal Box, Public Image Limited had already worked out an entirely different sound and approach.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Most who own Plastic Box probably use the second half as coasters. Those who don't probably get headaches when listening to the first two, and a select few find much to love about the whole thing. As if conceding to the consensus that PiL's early years were their best, the first half is devoted to the band's first three studio LPs cut over four years, while the second half covers the remainder. Listeners get the entirety of Public Image/First Edition sans "Fodderstompf." The majority of Metal Box (issued as Second Edition in the U.S.) is included, with three of the original versions sacrificed for Peel Session counterparts that really take the cake. "Careering" is especially wonderful and harrowing, arguably the collective's finest recorded moment. Keith Levene goes bonkers with the keyboards, perhaps fostering the increased intensity amongst the remaining members. The 12" mix of "Swan Lake" ("Death Disco") gets the box set upgrade too, as well as a couple other worthwhile Metal Box outtakes. Closing out the second disc is the entirety of The Flowers of Romance, sequentially shuffled with an additional non-album track. The second half of Plastic Box hits upon each of the remaining studio LPs, with the odd rarity, single mix and Peel Session thrown in for completist bait. For those who want improved sound over their early CD issues, the money spent is a smart investment. A quick comparison of the first 20 seconds of "Annalisa" to the version found on an old copy of Public Image should be evidence enough; the bassline of "Chant" makes the gut feel as if it's being endlessly pummelled by a bouncing battering ram. Though vast and relatively pricey, Plastic Box is an excellent introduction, if only for the adventurous.

Arriving with the force of a hurricane, Oasis' third album, Be Here Now, is a bright, bold, colorful tour de force that simply steamrolls over any criticism. The key to Oasis' sound is its inevitability -- they are unwavering in their confidence, which means that even the hardest rockers are slow, steady, and heavy, not fast. And that self-possessed confidence, that belief in their greatness, makes Be Here Now intensely enjoyable, even though it offers no real songwriting breakthroughs. Noel Gallagher remains a remarkably talented synthesist, bringing together disparate strands -- "D'You Know What I Mean" has an N.W.A drum loop, a Zeppelin-esque wall of guitars, electronica gurgles, and lyrical allusions to the Beatles and Dylan -- to create impossibly catchy songs that sound fresh, no matter how many older songs he references. He may be working familiar territory throughout Be Here Now, but it doesn't matter because the craftsmanship is good. "The Girl in the Dirty Shirt" is irresistible pop, and epics like "Magic Pie" and "All Around the World" simply soar, while the rockers "My Big Mouth," "It's Getting Better (Man!!)," and "Be Here Now" attack with a bone-crunching force. Noel is smart enough to balance his classicist tendencies with spacious, open production, filling the album with found sounds, layers of guitars, keyboards, and strings, giving the record its humongous, immediate feel. The sprawling sound and huge melodic hooks would be enough to make Be Here Now a winner, but Liam Gallagher's vocals give the album emotional resonance. Singing better than ever, Liam injects venom into the rockers, but he also delivers the nakedly emotional lyrics of "Don't Go Away" with affecting vulnerability. That combination of violence and sensitivity gives Oasis an emotional core and makes Be Here Now a triumphant album.

This one-off collaboration between the Cure's Robert Smith and Siouxsie & the Banshees' Steven Severin resulted in an eccentric, and at times incompatible, mix of psychedelic sounds wrapped around alternative '80s pop. Writers Smith and Severin's more eccentric tendencies are as likely to evoke pictures of a carnival as a funereal march, but the backbone rests largely on tightly constructed tunes with occasional forays into the experimental. Jeanette Landray sings the majority of the tracks, while Smith takes the lead twice amongst a smattering of instrumentals. Standout tracks include the Middle Eastern-twinged "Orgy" and the more conventional "Mouth to Mouth." Smith's distinctive warbling on the first-class "Perfect Murder" takes the album directly into Cure territory, as do the instrumentals which could equally find a home on Seventeen Seconds. While musically diverse, the album's lyrics rarely stray from the dual themes of death and sex, furthering the gothic undertones so often heard in Smith and Severin's previous work. Blue Sunshine's eclecticism makes this an interesting side note for long-time fans of the Cure and Siouxsie & the Banshees, but a somewhat more inaccessible listen for others.

Monday, January 24, 2011

A Piece of Americana is the fourth EP from American punk rock band The Offspring. A Piece of Americana was released in 1998 as sampler EP for their album "Americana".

The EP contained all four singles to appear from the upcoming album, though some were slightly modified before their album release. The earlier versions from this EP later appeared on varying releases of the singles. The EP also contained the parody track 'Feelings'.

Club Me was the third EP released as an extra by the punk rock band The Offspring on January 1, 1997. Originally it was only available to fan club members. Copies of it are sometimes sold from their online store, and it was re-released in a pack with the band's Greatest Hits album.

"Club Me" is from the Ixnay on the Hombre era. The picture on the actual CD is a larger version of one of the pictures on the back of Ixnay on the Hombre. None of the tracks on the EP, however, appear on Ixnay on the Hombre or any other Offspring album. This is unlike the other EPs released by the Offspring ("Baghdad", "They Were Born to Kill", and "A Piece of Americana") which all contained tracks that appeared on other studio albums.

Baghdad was a 7-inch EP released by American punk rock band The Offspring in 1991. It is currently out of print, but sold 3000 copies within one week of its release. Although Baghdad has never been reissued on CD in its entirety, two of the songs were later released on compilations: "Hey Joe" was re-recorded on Go Ahead Punk...Make My Day (Nitro Records, 1996) and "Baghdad" on Rock Against Bush, Vol. 1 (Fat Wreck Chords, 2004).

They Were Born to Kill is a bootleg released by American punk rock band The Offspring in 1991. It features early versions of "Jennifer Lost The War" and "Out on Patrol", the first and third song on the band's debut and self-titled album - The Offspring - which was released two years earlier. Both songs were taken from the Side B of the 1988's Tehran demo tape. It was the first Offspring album (though only a bootleg) to feature a distinctive font that was used as their logo up until their breakthrough album Smash.

He might have cut his mohawk, but few vocalists spell pure punk rock fury like Sucker, vocalist for the frenzied and speculative Oxymoron. Always nice to hear on a punk record, his venomous yelp has become quite the instrument of destruction since his induction into the punk underworld. His political opinions and hatred of mainstream punk rock are plentiful on Feed the Breed, a good but strange record for the band. Sounding almost (gasp!) poppy on the 14 tracks here, this is one of the first Oxymoron records to offer this sort of listener-friendly approach. Their sound hasn't changed drastically, especially considering how little Oi! really differs from punk-pop, but the shift towards melodic songwriting is not unwelcome. Where in the past they may have suffered from a few too many chant-alongs, they have a better grasp on song structure and dynamics here. They do sacrifice a bit of their trademark aggression here, but the trade-off seems quite fair by the time "Wild and Dangerous" begins its inspiring rail against the upper class. Hardcore fans might complain, but Oxymoron hasn't cut a bit of their lyrical power in the transition from Oi! purists to a well-rounded punk force. For what might be their best album to date, Feed the Breed stands tall as a fantastic force of Oi! for the 21st century.

Clocking in at a taut nine songs in 39 minutes without a second of filler, The End Complete may be the definitive Obituary album. The band's third, it marks the return of lead guitarist Allen West and it also marks an impressive leap forward in production. The songwriting and playing on Obituary's past albums had been commendable, and The End Complete is no exception in that regard. Rather, it's the return of West and the remarkable production job by Scott Burns that sets this album apart from its predecessors. The return of West is important not only because his solos are one of the band's trademarks but also because he's an integral songwriter, here co-penning four of the nine songs. Burns' crystal-clear, in-your-face production is not to be underestimated, either. If anything had marred Obituary's past two albums, both of them otherwise excellent, it was the murkiness of the sound, especially the drums. That's not an issue here at all, however, as Obituary have never sounded this great. The guitar tones especially are downright vivid, particularly when West and rhythm guitarist Trevor Peres depart from one another such as during the solos (the title track is a great showcase for this, and so is "Rotting Ways"). You can practically feel the respective guitar tones buzzing through your head, they're so well recorded. And so are John Tardy's vocals, which are sometimes overdubbed to make them all the more potent and nuanced. They're so well recorded, in fact, you can actually understand some of the lyrics! Overall, there really isn't anything to complain about here. Sure, nine songs in a brisk 39 minutes might not be enough for those who can't get enough of Obituary's textbook style of death metal, but this is such a powerful album that even seasoned metalheads can get exhausted quickly. And besides, Obituary may be one of death metal's greatest bands ever, granted, but they're generally not the most varied or experimental. So too many more songs or too much more music, and the proceedings could begin to get increasingly monotonous, a problem that has plagued innumerable death metal albums over the years. But that's not an issue here, thankfully; the primary issue instead seems to be just how Obituary could top an album such as The End Complete. Its two predecessors, Slowly We Rot and Cause of Death, had been near perfect and were quickly deemed classics of the early death metal era. But here the band has done itself one better, bringing West back into the fold and getting a better production job from Burns, and the result is arguably the definitive Obituary album and, consequently, a prototypical death metal album. It don't get much better than this, folks.

Lead guitarist Allen West didn't join Obituary for their second album, Cause of Death, which makes a bigger difference than you might expect. His replacement is a close associate of the band, James Murphy of the band Death -- the man many consider to be the godfather of death metal -- and he brings his own style to Cause of Death, resulting in an album that sounds like a hybrid of Obituary and Death. This isn't necessarily bad; in fact, it's somewhat fascinating, especially for metalheads well immersed in the Florida school of death metal. You can hear Murphy's influence throughout the album, as he often leads the band into eerie dirge-like moments that sound like the eye of the storm at hand. Murphy's contribution to Cause of Death aside, not much else has changed in the year since Obituary's 1989 debut, Slowly We Rot. The vocals of John Tardy still dominate the proceedings, the drastic tempo changes still set Obituary apart from the majority of their peers of the time, and producer Scott Burns still struggles with seemingly low-budget values that actually sound worse than they did on Slowly We Rot (not in a good, lo-fi way, either). The band's songwriting -- handled almost entirely by Tardy, rhythm guitarist Trevor Peres, and drummer Donald Tardy, with the exception of a Celtic Frost cover, "Circle of the Tyrants" -- has become a bit more progressive (perhaps because of Murphy's influence), as several songs top the five-minute mark (none did previously, averaging a couple minutes less per song) and take more twists and turns than before. These slight differences certainly distinguish Cause of Death from its landmark predecessor, and you can quibble about which approach is better, as many fans have and always will. In the end, Cause of Death is still a great album for its time. Remember, this is 1990 -- still way at the dawn of death metal. And though Obituary would make big strides forward with The End Complete in a year and a half, Cause of Death is nonetheless an intriguing album, especially from a historical perspective. It's not one of the band's best, but it's definitely one of their most interesting and, along with Slowly We Rot, their most distinct.

The words "limited edition" don't mean a lot if one has only a casual interest in a band, but they are a real attention-grabber if a label is going after the type of serious collectors and obsessive fans who are interested in everything the band does. "Limited edition" indicates that the consumer is acquiring a rarity, and rarities have a lot of appeal if one falls into the obsessive fan category. Marketed as a "limited-edition tour EP," Left to Die is clearly aimed at hardcore collectors rather than a more casual listener who is happy owning only two or three Obituary releases. Left to Die, like other EPs of this nature, favors an odds-and-ends approach; the material ranges from two new songs ("Left to Die" and "Forces Realign") to a cover of Celtic Frost's "Dethroned Emperor" to a re-recording of the title track of Obituary's 1989 album Slowly We Rot. In addition to those four audio tracks, this disc also contains a video for "Evil Ways" (which is one of the songs that appeared on Obituary's Xecutioner's Return album of 2007 and should not be confused with the Latin-influenced gem that was a major hit for Santana in 1969). Although enjoyable, this 2008 release is hardly essential. But then, limited-edition releases aren't meant to be essential. They are aimed at the true believers, and Obituary's true believers are obviously the target of Left to Die.

Recorded : November 18, 1993, Sony Studios, New York City, New York, United States

Genre : Grunge

Length : 53:50

Label : DGC

Producer : Alex Coletti, Scott Litt, Nirvana

If In Utero is a suicide note, MTV Unplugged in New York is a message from beyond the grave, a summation of Kurt Cobain's talents and pain so fascinating, it's hard to listen to repeatedly. Is it the choice of material or the spare surroundings that make it so effective? Well, it's certainly a combination of both, how the version of the Vaselines' "Jesus Doesn't Want Me for a Sunbeam" or the three covers of Meat Puppets II songs mean as much as "All Apologies" or "Something in the Way." This, in many senses, isn't just an abnormal Nirvana record, capturing them in their sincerest desire to be R.E.M. circa Automatic for the People, it's the Nirvana record that nobody, especially Kurt, wanted revealed. It's a nakedly emotional record, unintentionally so, as the subtext means more than the main themes of how Nirvana wanted to prove its worth and diversity, showcasing the depth of their songwriting. As it turns out, it accomplishes its goals rather too well; this is a band, and songwriter, on the verge of discovering a new sound and style. Then, there's the subtexts, as Kurt's hurt and suicidal impulses bubble to the surface even as he's trying to suppress them. Few records are as unblinkingly bare and naked as this, especially albums recorded by their peers. No other band could have offered covers of David Bowie's "The Man Who Sold the World" and the folk standard "Where Did You Sleep Last Night" on the same record, turning in chilling performances of both -- performances that reveal as much as their original songs.

Recorded : May–June 1991 at Sound City Studios, Van Nuys and Devonshire, North Hollywood, California

"Polly" recorded in April 1990 at Smart Studios, Madison, Wisconsin

Genre : Grunge

Length : 42:38

Label : DGC

Producer : Butch Vig

Nevermind was never meant to change the world, but you can never predict when the zeitgeist will hit, and Nirvana's second album turned out to be the place where alternative rock crashed into the mainstream. This wasn't entirely an accident, either, since Nirvana did sign with a major label, and they did release a record with a shiny surface, no matter how humongous the guitars sounded. And, yes, Nevermind is probably a little shinier than it should be, positively glistening with echo and fuzzbox distortion, especially when compared with the black-and-white murk of Bleach. This doesn't discount the record, since it's not only much harder than any mainstream rock of 1991, its character isn't on the surface, it's in the exhilaratingly raw music and haunting songs. Kurt Cobain's personal problems and subsequent suicide naturally deepen the dark undercurrents, but no matter how much anguish there is on Nevermind, it's bracing because he exorcises those demons through his evocative wordplay and mangled screams -- and because the band has a tremendous, unbridled power that transcends the pain, turning into pure catharsis. And that's as key to the record's success as Cobain's songwriting, since Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl help turn this into music that is gripping, powerful, and even fun (and, really, there's no other way to characterize "Territorial Pissings" or the surging "Breed"). In retrospect, Nevermind may seem a little too unassuming for its mythic status -- it's simply a great modern punk record -- but even though it may no longer seem life-changing, it is certainly life-affirming, which may just be better.

Appearing a year after the long-awaited three-disc With the Lights Out, which was supposed to be a clearinghouse for all existing Nirvana demos and rarities, Sliver: The Best of the Box is a single-disc compilation of highlights from that set. Of course, a comp like this needs to have collector bait in order to guarantee interest from the die-hard fans, so in addition to 19 previously released cuts, this has three previously unreleased tracks, most noteworthy being the 1985 demo of "Spank Thru," recorded when Kurt Cobain's band was called Fecal Matter. The other two songs are a 1990 studio demo of "Sappy," the song first released under the title "Verse Chorus Verse" on the No Alternative various-artists album, and a "Boom Box Version" of "Come as You Are," which is a taped rehearsal take of the song recorded before Nevermind. All three of these would have fit nicely on the box (and arguably should have been there, especially "Spank Thru," which is the best of the earliest Nirvana-related recordings), and for obsessives, they're enough to warrant a grudging, hesitant purchase. The real question is, whether Sliver is worthwhile for serious fans who nevertheless for whatever reason don't want three discs of demos and outtakes. The answer is: kinda. Most of the major songs from With the Lights Out are here, but not all of them. What's missing are outtakes like "Verse Chorus Verse" (a different song than "Sappy"), B-sides like "Curmudgeon," and non-LP cuts like "I Hate Myself and I Want to Die." While it's understandable that a weird novelty like "Beans" wouldn't make the cut, the absence of these three cuts mean this comp does fall short of its billing as being "The Best of the Box," and it also makes it of less interest to fans who just want all the truly noteworthy cuts from the box. That said, this does have such great items as the outtake "Old Age," the non-LP single "Oh the Guilt," and a demo of Leadbelly's "Ain't It a Shame," plus acoustic demos of Cobain's last two songs, "Do Re Mi" and "You Know You're Right," which is enough to satisfy the curiosity of most listeners. But it has to be said that due to its source material of home recordings and lo-fi tapes, Sliver, like With the Lights Out, is not easy listening and demands listeners' utmost attention -- and if listeners are willing to concentrate that hard on Nirvana rarities, they'd probably be better off getting three discs of the stuff instead of just one.

Originally released to promote Nirvana's early 1992 Australian tour (and reissued a month later in Japan for similar purposes, albeit with different cover art), the Hormoaning EP quickly became a much sought-after item to Nirvana fans and collectors alike. Not only was it produced in relatively scarce quantities, but it also gave those who were lucky enough to track down a copy an opportunity to hear an assortment of rare tracks unavailable elsewhere (that is, until Incesticide, which contains most of these songs, was released later in the year). Only two originals are featured on Hormoaning -- the "Smells Like Teen Spirit" B-side, "Even in His Youth," and the colossal, foreboding "Aneurysm." However, in the same way that MTV Unplugged in New York would later prove, the four cover songs here tell as much about Nirvana as do the originals. Kurt Cobain's wide-ranging influences are acknowledged as if they were one and the same -- the group's love of new wave (shown in their take on Devo's "Turnaround") is treated no differently as their nod to Northwest underground punk stalwarts the Wipers ("D-7") or Cobain's beloved Scottish twee pop heroes the Vaselines ("Son of a Gun" and "Molly's Lips"). Regardless of the availability of most of this material elsewhere, Hormoaning still serves as a revealing entry in the catalog of the most influential rock band of the '90s.

Friday, January 21, 2011

A collection of scathing grindcore covers, demonstrating some of Napalm Death's influences and offering a different spin on tracks written by Slaughter and Repulsion, among others. The EP is a quick burn, finishing with a six-and-a-half-minute version of the Dead Kennedys' "Nazi Punks Fuck Off."

Since practically inventing the sound of grindcore on Scum, Napalm Death underwent a major lineup shuffling, which is well chronicled for convenient comparison on the Death by Manipulation compilation. Six songs come from the group's 1989 Mentally Murdered EP and feature vocalist Lee Dorrian and guitarist Bill Steer, who would leave Napalm Death to lead Cathedral and Carcass, respectively. "Rise Above" stands out as the strongest of these six songs with its lumbering intro, which leads into possibly the most ferocious human growl ever put to vinyl. Following Dorrian's wall-shaking banshee yell, the quartet then breaks into a whirlwind of calamitous noise, characterized by the cyclical grind of Steer's sole guitar and drummer Mick "Human Tornado" Harris' ear-covering barrage of hammering percussion. Seven songs come from the Mass Appeal Madness EP and Harmony Corruption LP, both featuring vocalist Barney Greenway in place of Dorrian and the guitarist duo of Jesse Pintado and Mitch Harris in place of Steer. This new lineup tends to extend the songs past the two-minute mark and brings more variation to the band's sound with their dual guitar attack's versatility relative to the limited though still remarkable abilities of Steer as the sole guitarist. These formal characteristics become glaringly evident on "Mass Appeal Madness" and "Suffer the Children," two songs that more resemble death metal than grindcore. The tempos fluctuate throughout the songs, offering more musical variation than the oft-homogenous, nonstop, unrelenting eardrum assault of the classic lineup's attempts to incite heart attacks. Perhaps the most interesting moment of this collection comes when the new lineup performs new versions of the classic lineup's anthems "Unchallenged Hate" and "Social Sterility," offering opportunities for insightful comparison. Overall, Death by Manipulation not only captures this infamous band undergoing a controversial transition but also serves as an excellent compilation for listeners curious about the band's different musical phases. [Earache reissued Death by Manipulation in 1995, resequencing the track order, adding numerous more songs, and appending three live bonus tracks taken from Live Corruption.]

As a rallying call for what seemed like millions of bands to follow, not to mention the launching point for the varying careers of Justin Broadrick, Nick Bullen, Mitch Harris, Lee Dorrian, and Bill Steer, Scum deserves its reputation alone. But it's also fun to listen to -- a strange word to use, but no doubt about it, the album has its own brand of rock & roll kicks taken to an almost ridiculous extreme. Split between the original lineup, with Broadrick and Bullen, and the next one, with Dorrian, Steer, and Shane Embury, Scum is a portrait of a place, time, and state of mind. Opener "Multinational Corporations" is the deep breath taken before the plunge: skittering cymbals, low-key feedback squalls, Bullen's rasped hatred -- and then all hell breaks loose. The riffs by both the Broadrick/Bullen and Steer/Embury teams use hyperconcentrated Black Sabbath-via-Motörhead-and-Metallica approaches as starting points, but the moorings are cut loose when everyone concentrates on nothing but speed itself. The combination of hyperspeed drums, crazed but still just clear enough guitar and bass blurs, and utterly unintelligible vocals takes the "loud hard fast rules" conclusion to a logical extreme that the band's followers could only try to equal instead of better. Interspersed throughout all this on various songs are more obviously deliberate constructions -- parts of the title track, say, or the focused chug-and-stomp start of "Siege of Power." They act as just enough pacing for the rampages elsewhere, where unrelenting, intense sound becomes its own part of weird ambient music, textures above all else. It's little surprise the free jazz/noise wing latched onto Scum as much as wound-up-as-hell headbangers did worldwide. That practically no song survives past two minutes -- much less one -- is all part of brusque do-the-job-and-do-no-more appeal. The most legendary number as a result: "You Suffer (But Why?)," running at a mere two seconds.

Pulling back slightly from the raw, dance-oriented Technique, New Order took a break for four years and then crafted another slice of prime guitar pop. In keeping with previous work, Republic simply borrows elements of contemporary innovations in club music to frame a set of effortlessly enjoyable alternative pop songs. As on Technique, the singles ("World," "Spooky") are the most danceable on the record, while lyrical concerns are among the most direct of the group's career, including "Ruined in a Day" and "Times Change," sure signs of the demise of Factory Records.

Substance is a double-disc set collecting New Order's singles, including several songs that were never available on the group's albums, at least in these versions. While there are a couple of re-recordings of earlier singles, most of Substance consists of 12" single mixes designed for danceclub play. Arguably, these 12" mixes represent New Order's most groundbreaking and successful work, since they expanded the notion of what a rock & roll band, particularly an indie rock band, could do. Substance collects the best of their remixes, and in the process it showcases not only the group's musical innovations, but also their songwriting prowess -- "Temptation," "Blue Monday," "Bizarre Love Triangle," and "True Faith" are some of the finest pop songs of the '80s. Although it is a double-disc set, Substance isn't overly long. Instead it offers a perfect introduction to New Order, while providing collectors with an invaluable collection of singles.

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